"Swagger, Quarrel, Failure."

General Butler made no further reply by letter. But he came
to Worcester, where I dwelt, and addressed an enormous meeting
in Mechanics Hall. I suppose many more people than those
that got in were obliged to go away because the Hall would
not hold them. The General devoted his speech largely to
a powerful and bitter attack upon me. I replied at a meeting
at the same place a few days after. My speech ended with
the following sentences. After describing the heroism of
the youth of Worcester in the battle with slavery and the
battle with Rebellion, I added:

"And now, after the war, another enemy, unarmed, but bringing
even greater danger, menaces the Republic. The battle with
corruption is the duty of the hour. The blow which rebellion
aimed at the Nation's life you could ward off. The wounds
it inflicted are already in the process of cure. But this
poison, this rotting from the core, is far more dangerous
to the Republic. There is already danger that the operations
of the Tweeds and Goulds in New York may be repeated on a
more gigantic scale at the National capital. The mighty railroads
to whom our public domain has been so lavishly granted, in
some cases I doubt not, wisely, afford infinite opportunity
for plunder and corruption. All these are at the cost of
the labor of the country. The increased tax falls in the
end on the consumer. With the waste of our public land are
diminished the resources of the laborer. Following bad precedents
Congress has itself been induced to set the pernicious example
of which you have heard so much discussion. (This referred
to the measure known as the Salary Grab.) The author of the
measure tells you that he knew what he was doing, and if you
didn't like it you could vote against him. Are you quite
ready to declare to the country that in this great contest
with extravagance and corruption, wherever the Republicans
of the rest of the country may array themselves, the Republicans
of Massachusetts fight under the banner of General Butler?

"You are doubtless familiar with Victor Hugo's description
of the marine monster said to be found in the vicinity of
the Channel islands, and known as the Devil Fish. It is
apparently formed of an almost transparent jelly, colorless,
almost indistinguishable from the water which surrounds it,
armed with long slender limbs, numerous as the feet of the
centipede, and strong in their grasp as hands of